


something new

by popnographic



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 14:25:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5629666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/popnographic/pseuds/popnographic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haruka braids Gou's hair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	something new

**Author's Note:**

> I was debating on whether to go romantic HaruGou or just them being friends for quite a while before I started this. I realised I have a long way to go yet before I can consider myself 100% comfortable with writing straight pairings. Remember when things used to be the complete opposite? My, how times have changed.
> 
> This is also some kind of a 'warm up' thing (?) to a fic I'm working on that's going to be way longer than just one chapter, so I guess you could consider this a teaser of some sorts... even though it isn't part of the actual fic? This is just the general feel of a portion of it, I suppose. It's difficult to explain without spoiling stuff, so I'm just gonna stop. It's HaruGou, and that could never go wrong, right? (Well... _almost_ never.)

The ring of his doorbell is expected, but Haruka still flinches at the shrill tone of it. He’s been so deeply concentrated on this painting of his for probably _too_ long that he’s basically shut out the rest of the world while working on it. Being brought back to reality is welcome to him, though, because he feels like he’s very much done with this for the day. He puts his paintbrush down with a sigh before trudging out into the hallway to open the door.

His guest wears her hair down, which is the first thing he notices, and it catches him off guard. She grins up at him, probably because of how dumb he must look when he stares so blatantly at her just because she doesn’t have her hair up like she usually does.

“Matsuoka,” Haruka says as flatly as he can. She stares at him, almost expectantly, and Haruka has to bite the inside of his cheek as to not laugh before he continues his by now traditional ‘greeting Gou’ phrase. “Gou.”

“Honestly, when will you _ever_ give that up?” Gou says with a roll of her eyes, but she smiles before she pulls Haruka in for a hug. “It’s been _years_ since that one time, I can’t believe you still remember that.”

“How could I forget such a thing?”

“I don’t know if I should be flattered or just annoyed.”

Haruka laughs a little. “So when did you decide to give up on forcing people to call you Kou?” he asks instead, returning the embrace. “I remember you being _very_ adamant on it, especially with Nagisa.”

Gou lets go of him, and shrugs. “It didn’t take very long. I guess I should just embrace the name I was given, much like you guys have. Honestly, ‘Gou-chan’ still makes me sound like a girl, but you’re supposed to be _guys_ , and ‘Haru-chan’ just doesn’t convince me of that.”

“I’ve told him for _years_ to stop calling me that, but you can’t teach old dogs to do tricks, apparently.”

Haruka gestures for his guest to come inside, which she’s quick to do, as well as supply herself with a pair of guest slippers before they enter the house proper. He’s gotten used to Gou refusing to go and just sit down like normal guests, so he just lets her help him prepare tea for them both, and then the two sit down by his kotatsu with a steaming mug each to set down in front of them.

Gou plops down right between his legs, and leans back against his chest. “So how are you? How’s work?”

“Busy. I prefer it that way, though. It’s not too bad. And you?”

“Can’t complain, I guess. Some days are better than others, but the pay is good.”

“Even though your work hours suck.”

Gou laughs. “Yeah, they do. That’s probably the trade-off. You can’t have it all, can you?”

Haruka hums, blows on his tea before taking a tentative sip. “Not used to see your hair like this.”

She looks up at him for a second before she returns her attention to her mug. “I was lazy. Care to help? I even brought hair bands.”

“How kind of you,” Haruka says with mild sarcasm. He takes the hair bands from her nevertheless, but then has an idea he hopes she’ll be okay with once he’s done. Well, she’ll probably protest way before he’s done if she doesn’t like it, but he decides to give it a shot anyway. He can’t ever recall having seen Gou in braids before, since she always has her hair up in a high ponytail. It’s probably a lot easier to do on your own, he figures, and that might be why she goes with it so often.

He splits her hair down by the middle, carefully raking his fingers through it like a makeshift hairbrush, and Gou just continues talking while he begins braiding her hair. It’s nice, just sitting like this, and talking about anything that comes to mind to either of them. When he started to properly hang out with Gou, Haruka realised just how easy she is to talk with, and he curses himself for not having taken the interest in finding this out sooner. His high school days could have been at least a _little_ more interesting that way, if he hadn’t just seen her as their team manager, and more like a friend.

“Hey,” she says, her tone suddenly turning a little downcast, and Haruka raises his eyebrows a at the weird change. “Do you talk to Rin often?”

“Not really. He’s terrible at keeping in contact. Although I guess I shouldn’t say anything, because I tend to be the same. Makoto tends to remind me to call him, but he doesn’t answer all the time even then. Why?”

Gou laughs a little, but Haruka notices it seems a little harder this time for her to do so. “It’s just… I wonder if he ever thinks about me, being his sister and all. Like ‘oh, I wonder how she’s doing’, or ‘I should call my sister just for the hell of it’. Or do siblings just not do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Of course you wouldn’t. Sorry.”

Haruka finishes one braid, and goes onto the second half of her hair. He’s never realised before just how _long_ Gou’s hair is, either, and how long it takes just to finish one braid. Probably another reason as to why he hasn’t seen her like this before.

“’S fine. I’m sure he _does_ think about you, he’s just bad at keeping in contact with _everyone_. Not just you. So it’s nothing personal, really.”

“I hope so.”

He knows how much Rin loves and is proud of his sister, but Haruka feels like maybe he shouldn’t say that, since she’d probably let it slip to Rin somehow, and he’d never live to see the next day in that case. It’s just something he figures he’ll let her realise on her own—either that or he and Makoto will have to tell their childhood friend to properly show it to her, at least to the best of his abilities, with him only coming back home twice a year before going back to Australia.

The two sit in silence while Haruka finishes the second braid, and when he’s done, he taps her on the shoulder to let her know. She looks at them, and then up at Haruka, and smiles. “Thanks, Haru.”

And he knows in the tone she uses, that Gou isn’t just thanking him for braiding her hair.

He places a hand on her head, letting out a quiet sigh through his nose. “Sure.”

“I should probably have braids more often. I like them.”

“They suit you.”

“The effort, though,” Gou whines, and Haruka snorts.

“I knew it.”

“Knew what?”

Maybe they’re more alike than he originally thought. There’s always something new he learns about Gou, or even about himself, whenever they hang out, he realises. Of course, this isn’t something he particularly minds, either.

“Nothing,” he replies, and when Gou slaps him on the arm, Haruka laughs again.

**Author's Note:**

> [radiodread](http://radiodread.tumblr.com) @ tumblr


End file.
